The Turkish military Friday rose up against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan because President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry "have let vacuums get filled in the Middle East," Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, told Newsmax TV.

"It's sad to hear Kerry and President Obama sort of," Jasser told "Newsmax Prime" host J.D. Hayworth. "The reason this is happening is they have let vacuums get filled in the Middle East.

"We saw the writing on the wall last week, where all of a sudden Erdogan seemed to be backing [Syrian President Bashar al] Assad, backing Russia.

"He seemed to have been backed into action, when in fact he was probably on his way out a week ago," Jasser said.

Perhaps the biggest hope from the attempted coup is that "this is going to help Europe see that maybe now a truly anti-ISIS regime will come up in Turkey," he said.

"The problem is that we in the land of free and liberty cannot stand behind a coup as the ends justifying the means — so just like Egypt, as much as we wanted to see hope with [President Abdel Fattah] al-Sisi, the methods he's used has been using to suppress descent to defeat and torture journalists and others has not been helpful to reform."

The Turkish military Friday rose up against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan because President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry "have let vacuums get filled in the Middle East," Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, told Newsmax TV.